Help, I have come to the crunch point! Can you help me decide what I should be doing?

Up till now I have been working in education and reached quite a senior post prior to mat leave. I was not able to go back to my post and had some additional time out.

I have now come to the point where I need to decide if I am going to re-train and go in a different direction. It has come to the crunch eg. we have a nursery place we need to accept or reject (starting for September). However, if we take up the nursery place (which my DH wants us to do) then I will need to go out to work on a temping basis (supply teaching) in order to pay for it. The supply teaching work would not bring in any money over and above the nursery fees and is very unlikely to take my career forward - it is quite a few steps back down the ladder. I have looked around for pt jobs at my level and had some interviews, but have not been succesful... Obviously a lot of people are chasing those jobs!

I have developed some self-employed and freelance work, but it is fairly unreliable in terms of bringing in money. It needs to be run alongside something else.

I am therefore interested in re-training in something where:

1) I am supporting people to make their lives better2) It is fairly flexible, maybe on an hour by hour basis3) It has fairly good professional standing4) I am working with individuals or small groups5) you can work part-time

I am very interested in women/mothers/babies and have been volunteering as a bf peer supporter, however I would have to do more training and have more experience in order to be eligible for any paid roles.

Can you suggest something I might do?

On the assets side:

I have money in the bank to pay for re-trainingI am intelligent, hardworking and find it fairly easy to pass exams/complete courses.About 1 day per week childcare support from a family member.

Well midwifery leaps out given your interests in women, mothers, BF, etc. but it's such an obvious link that I assume if you really wanted to do that you'd already know it. (It's also not terribly flexible, though it fulfils all your other criteria.)

I'm not sure if you're up for serious retraining, like a whole degree, or if you're looking for something more quickly achievable?

Have you considered either a training role in business - you would have lots of crossover skills from your teaching, or counselling (loads of different types of counselling roles you could consider - relationship, career, life coaching etc) which would fulfill your desire to help people, you would need to retrain but you could fit this in on a part time basis - again your teaching experience would help here. good luck!

I am really not keen on doing supply work, but this is a 'use it or lose it' place at the nursery that we would want to be using if I did get a proper job. Can't defer for various reasons. Hoping to fit any training alongside the supply work.

Adult education? There is more hourly paid work in FE than in school work, ime. You could do some CPD - maybe specialise in adult literacy or SEN work?

Higher level TA work? Most TAs wouldnt work more than 30 hours a week. Money is crap and it isnt high status, but it has many of the benefits of teaching without the marking/prep and if you have QTS you'll be snapped up, I'd imagine.

I would think carefully about Ed Psych - extremely tough to get into (years of training).

On the retraining front: Speech and Language Therapy (but this is a service that is being cut viciously in the current climate, in the public sector at least) or Occupational Therapy, maybe?

Or could you look into some sort of training role in the private sector?

Breastfeeding counsellor - such an important and amazing job! Could you have a chat to a doula about what this entails? My doula has just recently passed her exams.

Are you interested in teaching hypnobirthing?

Could you work for the NCT?

Are there any other charities you'd be interested in? My friend works for an organisation that helps people to get back into employment after long periods out of the workforce - helping with forms, CVs, interviews, lifeskills etc.

I am trying to get into some FE work involving training TAs so that definitely works for me. THe only problem with FE roles is that there is a separate qualification for teaching adults, so I am not really qualified to do that apart from roles relating to school-focused training.

THe 'helping people get back into work' role sounds interesting. WOuld you be happy to say which organisation she works for?

It is fairly straightforward to get hourly paid FE lecturing work without a PGCSE in Post-Compulsory Ed or a PTLLS/CTLLS/DTLLS etc if you have a subject you can teach. May be worth looking out around now (and again in Sept) at your local college websites.

'Helping people get back in to work' sounds good and is good (it's what I have done for years) but it is a really bad time for that whole sector, if I am brutally honest. There are gazillions of highly trained people (with the QCG or PGDip Guidance) who are out of work because of public sector cuts, which means there are many, many people chasing very, very few jobs in that area.

Sorry to sound so doom and gloom. Like everything, if you are determined I am sure you could find something, but just wanted to warn you that it is not a great time for people entering this sector without experience.

What I should have said re: FE hour is that often they will take on good but unqualified people from industry who are 'willing to gain a relevant qualification' within a set period of time - usually 2 years.

Just to update. I stumbled upon my own old thread while searching for something.

In the end, after a further three months of searching, I found a brilliant three day a week job in a voluntary organisation. In my first year there i also did further training in BF support in my own time, so am now qualified in that too!

The job I have involves developing training, so I am possibly looking at freelance training at some point in the future.